The team behind teenage comedy The Inbetweeners is launching a female version of the show.

The new sitcom, called Drifters, features three of the stars of the spin-off movie - Lydia Rose Bewley and Jessica Knappett, who played clubbers Jane and Lisa, and Lauren O'Rourke, who played Neil's girlfriend.

The trio play three friends who are now stuck in dead-end jobs in Leeds while they try to figure out what to do with their lives.

Bob Mortimer will star as one of their fathers in the Channel 4 show, which is being written by Knappett.

The cast of The Inbetweeners Movie at the Empire Awards in March 2012

Iain Morris, one of the creators of The Inbetweeners, is executive producer on Drifters.

He said: "We're lucky and delighted to be involved with Jess's new sitcom.

"We knew from our time working with her whilst shooting The Inbetweeners Movie that she was hysterically funny, not least because she created the production's unofficial drinking den, Bar Knappett, in her hotel room."

The Inbetweeners has already inspired a US remake, while the film version - which followed its four main stars on a booze-fuelled holiday in Crete - was a huge cinema hit last year.

Empire Magazine gave the film four stars out of five, saying: "Like any holiday, it is episodic and suffers from repetition.

"But this is gag-for-gag the funniest film of the summer and a fitting end to a much-loved series."